A C-E Report On The Translation Of Tea Customs In The Taihu Lake Area(Excerpt)

In November,2022,China’s traditional tea-making was added to the intangible cultural heritage list of the UNESCO,demonstrating the value of Chinese tea and tea culture.Tea culture is a valuable global heritage,and its further dissemination requires good translation.Therefore,as a student majoring in translation,the author believes that it is necessary for translators to do a good job so that more foreigners can know more about Chinese tea culture and appreciate its charm.The original book Tea Customs in the Taihu Lake Area discusses not only the various types of tea trees cultivated in the Taihu Lake area,but also the process of harvesting,manufacturing,brewing,and consuming tea.The translation practice has the potential to promote the idea of“going global” of tea culture and to draw attention to the Taihu Lake area and its culture.The source text of this translation project are excerpts of the book which contain many culture-loaded words and four-character patterns that must be dealt with by using literal translation,free translation,transliteration,and other methods;the difficulty of sentence translation lies in the interpretation of long sentences and classical Chinese sentence patterns.When translating long sentences,the author first splits them into short sentences,then adjusts the word order,or adds subjects when needed.The connotation of classical Chinese requires to be construed first,and then be translated into vernacular Chinese.In order to deliver a good translation,the author consults a variety of relevant information while attempting to figure out the meaning of the original text.The author has acquired a better grasp of tea culture through this translation practice,and also has recognized that translation is a job that requires a wide range of skills.It is believed that with informative cultural texts similar to the original text,we should employ flexible translation strategies and methods.In order to achieve a balance between the adequacy and acceptability of the translation,translators should not only precisely convey the information of the original text,but also take into account the cultural background of the target language readers.The author hopes that this translation practice will serve as a reference for future translation of tea culture.